Monday, 25 May 2009

Centenary Plant

Canberra has plans for a new corrrea to celebrate 2013, if only we could breed a new Gymea Lily for 2016...

Not to be confused with the Century Plant - the Agave that flowers after many (but not 100) years and then dies - the Centenary Plant is a commemorative plant selected to celebrate Canberra's coming of old age.

In 2013, Canberra will have been in existence for one hundred years. I'm sure there will be plenty of celebratory events and other doings, for will be a special treat for plant lovers.

A new cultivar of Correa has been bred by Peter Ollerenshaw from Bywong Nursery, the Yarralumla Nursery, the Australian National Botanic Gardens, and local identity Ian Warden (described as 'local media personality and native plant evangelist').

The parents of this centenary plant are Correa 'Federation Belle' and Correa 'Mannii'. Although the committee responsible for its breeding (see above) will give it an officially registered cultivar name, the burghers of Canberra are looking for a common name.

While in the old days a common name was the name most commonly used for a plant, we do have a habit of constructing them for Floras and plant labels these days. Which is fine - it's all good fun.

While I don't like to relate everything back to the Botanic Gardens in Sydney, I generally do. We are looking for our own special plant to celebrate our bicentenary in 2016. If you have ideas for what that plant should be (apart from the Gymea Lily), please add your suggestions as a comment below.